Toms River, New Jersey

Toms River is a township in Ocean County, New Jersey. Toms River is named for the ferryman Thomas Luker, who ran a ferry across Goose Creek (now known as Toms River). During the American Revolutionary War, it was home to a salt works that supplied colonial militias, as well as a base for Patriot privateer vessels that plundered British and Tory ships off the coast. In March 1782, the British and loyalists attacked a blockhouse along the river and captured the patriot leader Joshua Huddy, who was later taken to Sandy Hook and hanged; the salt works and most of the houses in the village were destroyed. On 21 February 1798, Toms River was incorporated as "Dover Township", but it changed its name to Toms River in 2006, adopting the name of the largest unincorporated community within the township. In 2016, Toms River had a population of 91,837 people.